Who should control Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple's treasure?Discuss

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is expected to be credited with the richest temple in the world as excavations made in the temple speaks about the 1 lakh crore worth wealth which had been unearthed from the secret chambers of the temple. Here arises the question 'Who should control Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple's treasure'? Question arises about the proper management of the discovered wealth. Different opinion from various parts is now being discussed regarding the use of the wealth.

SpiderKerala invites an active discussion from the members to share your views regarding what should be done with the recovered wealth. Most active participants will be rewarded.

It is a great thing that even though the Travancore royal family was aware of this wealth, it was not used by them and none of it went missing. It is also a good thing that during the British rule, no one knew about this wealth or else it would have landed in the swiss banks. If such a thing had happened, they would have been adorning the crowns and jewels now.

In my opinion, the wealth should be used to eradicate the poverty that is prevalent in Kerala as well as India. Kerala, and specifically Hindus should be given slight priority over the rest of the country in such cases as the wealth has come from Hindu devotees mainly. When so many people are suffering due to lack of proper facilities and basic needs, i dont feel it's right to still keep the wealth stored within the temple. But it should be done only if there is some surety that the money will be used only for the welfare of the poor and needy. If people and especially politicians are going to fight over the money and get their share from it, then it's better that the money stays in the temple itself.

As mentioned by the author Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy Temple has already become the richest Temple in the world. Still other vault is to be opened and some more wealth is expected to be noted. It was quite possible as Smt Lakshmi Ramdas state that if the wealth was known to the British or the Muslim rulers of the nearby countries, they would have appropriated the wealth. Anyway thanks, to Sri Anantha Padmanabha Swamy, the wealth is intact. When the princely system was abolished by the independent India, the rulers of the Trivandrum who were also the owners of the temple could have taken the wealth. However, they did not do so as they have given the items given by them to the temple as offering to the lord of their family and country.

It is not that there was no knowledge about the wealth to anybody. As per the news reporting there is a perfect record by the late Mahakavi Ulloor giving the details of the items by name, quality, quantity, the person/s who offered the items and who were all present at the time of the offerings etc. The record is also found along with the wealth in the vaults. The vault used to be opened once in 12 years in the earlier period upto about 100 years back, according to the news items.

Now as to the use of the wealth, there may be divergent views. There may be people who feel that the wealth should be used for the development of the temple, city, state and the country. According to me the wealth is the offerings made by the devotees for specific purposes. The wealth consists mainly of 2 types. Once is in the form of articles which are having artistic, antique, relic and heritage values. These items should not be disturbed. There should be a provision to preserve the same as in a museum with proper security and inventory updated with all details of each and every piece and computerized. This may be exhibited once in a year or so for a few days in the lean season of the temple. There may be a portion of the wealth that may not have any intrinsic, relical, heritage value like the gold chains, ornaments of routine type and the silver utensils etc which can be auctioned and the proceeds of the same may be utilized for some useful purposes. I feel even a portion of the coins of Napoleon era, Vijayanagar Empire era or other such coins can be auctioned after keeping a few of them from each series as heritage/relical etc and kept in museum like place mentioned above.

Depending on the quantum of realization of the proceeds of the non relic, heritage items (items of ordinary type) the first priority should be given for the improvement of the infrastructure of the temple and around the temple by buying properties around if necessary, so that more and more people can come and have worship without hardships. After utilizing the fund for the improvement of the temple premises and around the next priority should be for the infrastructure improvement of the Thiruvananthapuram City the then the district and the rest of the state, if any funds available.

Thanks to the publicity, the temple will surpass the Thirupathi temple in the throng of devotees and the income from them by way of offerings will be very high which will be available for the benefit of the society by introducing schemes to improve the lot of poor in the state. The Government should consult the NGOs and other eminent persons and decide a portion (a fixed percentage of the income like 40%) of the income from the temple to be utilized for the improvement and maintenance of the temple and temple properties.

A special mention is to be made about the stand of the Oommen Chandy Government for their stand that the temple property belong to the temple and the Government will give protection to the property by providing adequate security. It is a commendable stand and should be appreciated.With RegardsRamanathan A R

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is having great importance in the world now. This is mainly because of the treasures discovered from it from the past few days. When a treasure is discovered in any part of the world, the important question arising is who will take care of the wealth? In the past the Kings who ruled our Travancore took great care of this wealth & they did not even use it for any purpose. This is the main reason why we are able to see these treasures in front of our eyes. In my opinion it is not good to store it in the temple itself. This is because most people are arguing that the exact amount of these treasures is not known while others think there may be more & more money in it. This will give a tendency for persons to enter the temple & stole it. Nowadays the price for gold is very high & not only the poor people but also the wealthier people may think about having more & more money. It is an important fact that money is a factor that makes people more & greedier.

As Lakshmi said the wealth must be used to eradicate the poverty that is prevalent in our country & Hindus must be given slight priority in this case, I don't agree with it. Can we make sure that all the wealth stored in the temple is equally distributed to the poor & needy people only? How can we distinguish between poor & wealthier people? All people are in need of the money. Some people may be able to show fake documents to prove that they may also be in need of money. It is not our wealth & another point is that if the truth regarding these treasures were remaiing hidden in the temple, no one will be able to get an awareness regarding this. Another point Lakshmi mentioned was that Hindus must be given slight priority. I don't agree with you Lakshmi regarding this important point because it may lead to communal riots in Kerala.

So inorder to avoid all these problems my opinion is that we must build a museum nearer to the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple & place all the treasures in a proper place in it. Those who visits this famous temple may also get an opportunity to see the museum, the history regarding the treasures found from it, those who studying history as their subject may get an offer to study deep in this subject, to discover the new areas of Kerala history, to know how these treasures landed in Kerala, who kept these tresures safely in this temples, who constructed the cellars in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple etc. I am also having a great curiosity to know more about these treasures. We all know that our Kerala is an important place that promotes tourism. If a museum is constructed & all the treasures are kept safely in it, this will definitely promote tourism. But an important point is that now tight security should be given to the temple until a museum is constructed. After the museum is constructed, tight security should be made available for it also.

The wealth of Sri Padmanabha swamy temple, identified as per the Supreme Court order is unique and at the world level, this Hindu temple will be the proud possessor of the richest wealth.There is no scope for discussions and legal claims as to who should possess them. This calls for high security. A special force comprising of Hindus should be appointed immediately. More than the questions on ownership and future utilisation of the wealth, the forthcoming historical students get ample scope for re-writing the pages in Kerala history as the archeological values of the 'treasure' items are immense. Hats off to the erstwhile members of the Royal families. As a keralite I am very proud to spread the news to my friends outside Kerala. Yet another example for our Statehood being "God's own country".Sreekumar NairTrichur

"Proud to be an indian"

NO & YES are two short words, which need a long thought..., most of the things we miss in life are due to saying NO too soon or YES too late. Have a great day.

It is now proved that the wealth accrued at Padmanabha swami temple was kept in tact by the rulers of those days. The Travancore Royal family is to be given all credit to this.

Now having made it known to the public, various opinions are pouring in regarding the utilisation of this millions worth wealth. There are several pieces of antiques and other rare specimens of jewellery, etc. Those have to be retained for the posterity. A good museum with perfect security can be thought of. Then it will attract thousands of tourists and researchers, and thereby generate income. No more it will remain dead deposit.

For the maintenance of the temple itself a good amount can be used. There are other temples in Kerala itself which need attention in order to continue its service. Some amount can be set apart for that purpose.T.M.SankaranGold Member, SPK

I was really shocked and excited to hear the news regarding the treasure found in Padmanabhaswami temple. I was at New York during that time. That time all Indians residing in our area were talking about this news. It had been a pride moment for all the keralites living there. But now the things have changed a lot. Now the main issue is regarding who should control the wealth and for what purpose it should be used.

Now different casts and parties have come up with their opinion. Most of them suggesting that it is the property of the temple and that should be used for the purposes of temple only while others have come up with the point that the wealth belongs to the public and it should be used for the development of the state. But some people have neutral opinion that it should be kept as it is and it is archaeological property. But what ever it may, the final decision has to come from the supreme court. They have appointed special commission to study this issue.

But recently the main issue came up with remark made by the CPM. CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan told that the administration of the famous Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple should be like the famous Sri Krishna temple in Guruvayoor. He also told that the property of the King means its the property of the common people. But Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told that the treasures in the temple are the assets of the temple. He also told that his government did not agree with CPM's suggestion regarding the administration of the temple. He doesnot want to make a dispute regarding control of the trust which is being run by the Travancore family. He also mentioned that many Hindu outfits in the state have also came with their disapproval on CPM's demand for the formation of a state appointed administrative for the temple. He told that his government will work according to the orders of Supreme courtRegards

The matter is under the consideration of the Supreme Court. The court is in the process of identifying, recording and assessing the steps needed to protect the temple property and to decide about the administration which includes the control. Even though the person who filed a case about the management of the temple, th court decided to take the case to its logical conclusion.With RegardsRamanathan A R

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple's treasure is not a public property.Also not more people where don't know about the treasure before the case. Also there is no problems about the protection. Now the state government should protect it but no controlling;controlling can be done by the temple committee or by Uthradam thirunal Marthanda varma.

Anyway today the Supreme court will hear the verdict regarding Padmanabhaswami temple. The court will today pass the orders on the security and the preservation of the treasure found in the vaults of the temple. Today the issues regarding the possibility of opening the vaults will also be consigered.

During the last hearing on september, the bench comprising of Justice RV Raveendran and Justice AK Patnaik had informed the court that the tradition and customs has to be followed and protected. They also had informed that superstition and impractical things will be not promoted in this issue.

The committee had also informed to provide CRPF to strengthen the security measures at the temple, but the kerala government had opposed it.Regards

Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple is the world's richest temple. At the first time this news flashed, I wondered. According to the latest news, about 100000 crores wealth are founded from different volts of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, the government, politicians and publics are saying different opinion about the use of this wealth. Most of the peoples saying that 'this wealth is donated to the temple by devotees so the wealth is donate to Hindu peoples'. It not practical and will make lot of political issues in our country. We can think another way that the 'source the wealth?' please ignores this question and consider it as the asset of our nation and sequestrated this wealth in to state government. There are lots of peoples in our country suffering poverty and most of them are home less, basically most of urban area in our country in dangerous zone due to lack of proper treatment and medicines. According to my opinion the Wealth of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple is the public property; the state government should control the wealth of this temple and use it for the social developments of our country. As per my opinion the state government is not able to control this wealth properly.

Now i am thinking that we are basically from a richest state but we are living as poor people.

The last sentence made by Sindhu is absolutely correct. Now our srtate is the richest, but unfortunately with poor people. If we are using the resource in a proper way, it will leads to the development of our state. It cannot be completely Royal Property. That wealth belongs to the common people, may the landlords collected as tax from the common people during the reign. So what the king should do with the tax money, should be used for the development of his Kingdom. May be this wealth might not be used that time. Sometimes may be hidden from the Britishers. But now it is recovered from the temple. So likewise it should be used for the development of the state. The valuable things has to be preserved and the archaeological survey of India should take the responsibility of that. Do not let that wealth unused in the name of politics or religion.Regards

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told that the treasure found in the temple vault belongs to the shrine and it should be kept there. He also told that his government will folow all the standing instructions of the Supreme court. He announced this during the press conference after the verdict of supreme court on Pabmanabhaswami temple on last wednesday. He also added that the government would provide all security to the temple to protect its assets.

A bench headed by justice R V Raveendran also turned down the plea of an expert committee to hand over the security of the temple to Central paramilitary forces and directed the state government to provide foolproof cover to the temple to protect its assets which are estimated to be over Rs 1.50 lakh crore.Regards

Oommen Chandy government is taking positive steps for the protection of the temple. Durig the meeting convened by the Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy for the The Kerala police has proposed for a five-tier security system for the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple following the recovery of several precious articles valued upto Rs one lakh crore during the process of inventory of the temple vaults.The estimated cost for enforcing the security is around 40 crore rupees. The Kerala police informed that this level of security enforcing will resist all sort of attacks from land, sea and air. As part of the first phase 60 surveillance cameras would be installed in the temple followed by radar, satellite monitoring systems, police told.Regards

Ibrahim N

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